For the most part, the inconsistencies are not in the starter, but in how you treat it. The "inconsistencies" can be exploited to produce a wide range of flavors and controlled to create extraordinary pizzas. I wouldn't give up. Temperature control is key, especially this time of year in the northern hemisphere.

LOL. I had a started given to me once, before i knew about this site. I felt the same way, but i'm sure it was due to my ignorance on the matter. if i still had it, i'd be willing to play around with it, but it died.

Okay I won't give up... but my patience is wearing thin. Maybe I'll do a little mix of starter & IDY, or just IDY and compare flavors. I'll keep feeding it though... it's a home-made starter that has decent flavor, but the rise & spring is hit or miss, but never great.

Okay I won't give up... but my patience is wearing thin. Maybe I'll do a little mix of starter & IDY, or just IDY and compare flavors. I'll keep feeding it though... it's a home-made starter that has decent flavor, but the rise & spring is hit or miss, but never great.

Why waste your time on an unsatisfactory starter? You could care for it and practice with it forever and never get great results. I'd recapture or purchase.

That's what I meant to say as well. In all my efforts, I never got lucky with wild yeast. Sometimes the flavor was really good, but IDY/ADY was still needed. It's really a crap shoot, you never know what you're going to get.

Would anyone be interested in trying my starter? I have some dried flakes vacuum sealed that I keep as a backup in case my active starter gets infected. I would be intersted to see if its just me or if its indeed my starter.

I'd be willing to pay someone a few $ to mail me dried flakes that is known to make good pizza... preferably NY style. Let me know!

Made 6 pizzas on the LBE last night. Fed the starter in the morning the day before, but had to work super late and missed peak starter activity. It had already deflated completely and looked like pancake batter by the time I got to it that night. GASP! I had to actually use.... gulp...... instant dry yeast! not much experience using IDY, but i just used a standard neapolitan formula:

The dough had great oven spring and tasted good, but not nearly as good taste wise as when I use my starter. The IDY gave a fresh, yeast taste, but starter develops a tang that I just didn't experience with the IDY. It worked in the pinch, but not ideal..

I'm about 6 days into activating my Ischia starter and compared to my old starter, it doesn't smell too good.

The first two days or so it smelled slightly sour like it was infected. I did a few washes and was able to get rid of the sour smell, but now the smell is hard to describe... I suppose you could say it smells "dirty" as if you mixed a little bit of soil with flour and water. It certainly doesnt have any type of pizza dough smell to it. It also is still slow to grow between feedings, probably minimum 12hrs before I start seeing signs of life at 75*

Made 6 pizzas on the LBE last night. Fed the starter in the morning the day before, but had to work super late and missed peak starter activity. It had already deflated completely and looked like pancake batter by the time I got to it that night. GASP! I had to actually use.... gulp...... instant dry yeast! not much experience using IDY, but i just used a standard neapolitan formula:

The dough had great oven spring and tasted good, but not nearly as good taste wise as when I use my starter. The IDY gave a fresh, yeast taste, but starter develops a tang that I just didn't experience with the IDY. It worked in the pinch, but not ideal..

I'm still all about the starter..

You should have just fed it again, and gave it an hour or two, would have likely been raring to go again

The IDY gave a fresh, yeast taste, but starter develops a tang that I just didn't experience with the IDY.

Was the taste actually "yeasty", as in kind of what the IDY tastes like straight outta the pack if you put some on your tongue? Or was it that without the tangy notes of the sourdough, you experienced more of the unbridled wheat flavor of the flour...or that and more of the byproducts of fermantation not masked by the tang? The former is a flaw. The latter is good.

Was the taste actually "yeasty", as in kind of what the IDY tastes like straight outta the pack if you put some on your tongue? Or was it that without the tangy notes of the sourdough, you experienced more of the unbridled wheat flavor of the flour...or that and more of the byproducts of fermantation not masked by the tang? The former is a flaw. The latter is good.

hard to define what i meant by "yeasty". think of opening a container of dough that has been rising leavened by idy; that fresh, yeasty smell. the taste of the finished product reminds me of that smell, coupled with the lack of tangy sourdough notes... it was good, but again I just prefer the sourdough leavened doughs...

as an aside, i totally understand why so many commercial operators abandon sourdough cultures in favor of cake yeasts and the like coupled with cold fermentation. it is so much more forgiving on timing for service than "naturally leavened" cultures.